Nuit Blanche Brings a Night of Light to New York

Still from Diller and Scofido's Soft Sell (1993), single-channel projection with sound.

We all met at the 34th Street Ferry that took us across the East River ($4 each way) to Greenpoint where curators of Nuit Blanche New York showed us a few of the 50 or so artworks — all involving light – that will be lining the blue-collar streets and filling a few of the disused factories for one night only – tonight, Oct. 1.

We strolled down the India Street pier towards a projection of a pair of luscious red lips asking us a series of question, each beginning, “How would you like….” (The saleswoman in Diller & Scofidio’s “Soft Sell” offered everything from “a clean credit record” to “a new identity,” but never got around to the one thing many of us were waiting for.)

Around the corner a Tony Oursler-style eye by Marcos Zotes-Lopez blinked from the top of ten-story-high water tower, U.S. and Polish troops recounted their Iraqi experiences as a candle flickered in a Krztsztof Wodiczko video in a local bar, and Eli Keszler busily stretched piano wires on walls in preparation for a performance.

The roster assembled by creative director Ken Farmer promises work by Dustin Yellin, Luke Dubois, Chakaia Booker, Daniel Canogar, Jeremy Blake, Richard Serra (films from the ’60s and ’70s) and dozens of others, as well as musical performances and a youth poetry slam from an ice-cream-like POEMobile – all within a few blocks.

The organizers told us ink-stained wretches that the time to arrive on Saturday night will be around sunset, and that ferries back to Manhattan go ’til midnight. For more information click the lips.